The present invention relates generally to policing network access by wireless terminals and, more particularly, to policing network access by machine type communication (MTC) devices.
The anticipated introduction of a large volume of machine-type communication (MTC) devices in the near future will greatly increase the demand on the resources of communication networks. MTC devices are devices, such as meters or sensors, that collect and send data to an MTC server or other MTC device over a communication network. It is expected that MTC devices will soon far outnumber non-MTC devices, such as user terminals for voice and data communications by human users.
Although MTC devices may have network access restrictions stored in memory, network operators may not wish to rely on MTC devices to police their own usage of network resources. If the MTC devices choose to ignore these restrictions, or if the restrictions are omitted from the MTC devices, network payload could be adversely affected to the detriment of other network users.